But I thought they were the Miami Heat? :grin: Folks were telling me about the Miami Heat! "Come on, they started 9-8 then made a deep run! No worries! They had their struggles and turned it around! Two ball dominant players (+ Bosh), it just took a little time!"
I understand your concerns and frustrations. Yeah I agree it pisses you off that they lose to crappy teams and play bad basketball. But I'm glad that is happening because that means the team has a lot to work for to be a competitive team. The team knows it and the coach knows it. So i'm glad these losses are happening so they can learn from these losses and fix them to become a better team. You don't become a better team if you don't learn from your mistakes. And don't forget Ty Lawson is new to the team and system, let him learn it and develop to get a long with the team and they will be better. If they don't, well, we'll riot at Toyota Center.
There are multiple threads talking about this same topic of coaching replacements. Just pointing that out, since I'm that kind of person.
Kerr clearly credited Lute an PJax as well. Not sure why you have to feel like you have to prove that Kerr is only influenced by his experience as a Spurs player. Do you mean us fans, or Danny Ferry who hired him? Danny Ferry was a Spurs player and mgmt for the Spurs. He knew. Also, when I say not every asst of the Spurs is necessarily HC material, Pops knew he was. And he talked about it. Everyone in the Spurs org knew Budenholzer was actually more of a co-HC versus assistant. Pops and Budenholzer have been together for decades. Pops referred to him as his right-hand man for years. It's similar to JVG and Thibs. JVG referred to Thibs as ready many times. It's not like Pops is the type to hold his friend and longstanding right-hand man down. People knew. The combination of Pops and Budenholzer could mean the other asst didn't have a huge role as you might think. There is only so much responsibility to pass out, and Bud owned most of it. Like Siths, there is only one apprentice. I agree wrt Kerr. No one really knew how a rookie NBA coach with no assistant coaching experience would do.
This is just about coaching replacement. I only touched in that at the very end. This is just as much about what is going to happen with Dwight at the end of the season if we are continue to fail. This is as much about the similarities about this seasons Rockets and the 2012 Lakers as the title and most of the thread points out. But of course you would have to read the whole post to know that. Just pointing it out, since your that kind of person.
Some people say its too soon to panic etc... but I'm thinking we should've fired McHale along time ago, cmon. Things came together last year, but we KNEW that sht was fools gold in a way because of how our offense worked (everything through Harden) and how we fell to GS in 5 games. Sure, we're missing DMO and still trying to find the right rotation... but McHale has NEVER been the right guy to coach this team. His adjustments are rotations are suspect, our defense worked last year but then suddenly escaped in the playoffs along with this year, and there IS no offensive game plan. I don't care if we usually dont have an issue scoring, the problem is that we have these POCKETS of HORRIBLE offense where we score 14 pts in a quarter and end up losing because of it. I dont care if we score 33 every other quarter, that area where we only score 12pts in 12min is usually why we can't win and its beause the other team is doing something right (usually) and our checkers coach can't counter it was chess. Eat your checkers!!!
Of course Kerr credited those two as well. Not denying that. But he clearly placed a lot of value on his time with Pops. No denying that. I will further point out that Golden State does not run the triangle offense. So while I don't question the fact that he is influenced by Phil, how much of Phil's philosophies is he using in his coaching? Not once did I say that Kerrs only influence in basketball Popovich. We could play the game about Pops and Budenholzer being the only two coaches with any huge role on coaching the Spurs all we want. Prior to being hired you could have made the same statement about Pops being the only coach with any huge role coaching the team but Bud has turned out pretty damn good. The truth is that all of the coaches are at the practices and participate in running drills the Popovich way. I personally don't see how you can live in that system for a decade and not understand the Pops way of coaching. All of the Coaches set on the with Popovich for 82 plus games every year and get to soak up his way of coaching games. No reason to think that Pops wouldn't promote Budenholzer. The Spurs system has been successful for many many years regardless of player turnover. You have assistants with a decade of experience in that system. Like I said, no one ever knows if someone is going to succeed until they are given a chance. I would rather give someone a chance that has lived and breathed in the successful system that is the Spurs for a decade.
Tell that to Danny Ferry who hired Budenholzer. Ferry was a player at the Spurs and middle-mgmt to experience Bud's coaching ability first hand. Giving someone a chance based on where they came from can seriously backfire. Just ask Notre Dame, the Jets and Browns who hired Belickick assistants as HCs. Turns out, they didn't really have the make-up of a HC. Budenholzer had more than a resume from the Spurs. He had high public praise from Pops, just like Thibs had from JVG. The references are usually more important than the resume. I think you might want to read up on Budenholzer history with Pops, and all the things Pops says about him. I wouldn't disrespect him by saying he is not unique and anyone who was an assistant for Pops can coach just as well. To me, that's disrespect and much more speculation on your part than Danny Ferry reasons for hiring Bud.
Ferry also hired Mike Brown who a lot of people around the NBA have or had respect for. He sucked as a head coach IMO. I predicted he would suck as coach of the Lakers and he clearly did. So don't think for a second that I believe Danny Ferry is this basketball savant as a NBA GM because I don't. If selecting the right head coach was as easy as knowing who has that best reputations as assistant coaches then no GM would ever hire the wrong head coach. My point stands. Why are you trying to convince me that Popovich hired incompetent or figurehead coaches and maintained them on his staff for a decade? I don't by it. We don't know what kind of coaches they will be but we know what kind of system they have lived in for a decade. We know that is the best system in basketball or at least right up their with the very best systems for offense & defense. We know that people that have come out of that system both as a player and a coach have been exceptionally successful. That certainly isn't proof that anyone else that has been in the Spurs organization for the last decade will be that successful but at least we know what they have been apart of for a very long time. I'll take that over a recycled coach like Thibs when we already know that he is a very poor offensive coach by Popovich, Kerr, Budenholzer standards. But thats just my preference. If you have you mind made up against Spurs assistants for whatever reason thats fine.
Whats up with people laughing at you? She's obviously qualified for a assistant coaching job, being that the SPURS hired her (which would never do something like that just for publicity) She's got a great basketball mind and was a great player herself in the WNBA. I'll gladly take her over McHale.
And that very well may be the case in this situation. There's many variables to what this may be, whether it's the coach, Harden's hot head, Lawson in the starting lineup, or maybe even Morey. We gotta look through every scenario first before we make the final conclusion
crash is a closet LOF. He thinks Lin is better than Lawson. Maybe the Lin fans were right. McHale and Harden held him back. :grin: Seriously, maybe Lawson really doesn't fit. I know it is early. But if he is really one of the top PGs in the league, you just can't fade like that no matter how bad the chemistry is. I can understand a big man needing teammates to pass him the ball. He is a PG for goodness sake! He is pretty much as good as anybody beating his man one on one. Something is pulling him back. I don't know why he is so timid.
I don't know what is going on. Is it the system? I don't know. Is it the coaching? I just want it fixed.
crash5179, Now you making an ad hominem attack on Danny Ferry. I'm not really attempting to say he's a great GM or not. I'm saying he knew Budenholzer was going to be a good pick as a HC, because he has more experience with him than all the GMs who apparently didn't see it. You're also ignoring the unique history of Bud and Pops and how much Pops did publically say he was ready for a HCing job. People knew. Just because you didn't, doesn't mean that the people paid to know things like that didn't. Lastly, your entire strategy to hire from the Spurs based purely on resume is basically saying that there is nothing unique about Bud, that anyone can do with the right resume. Some people just simply don't have the personality and make-up to be a HC, no matter what their Xs and Os knowledge is. And that is exactly what Pops says about Bud. That he ability to teach and manage players is what set him apparent. Stop disrespecting the coaching profession by saying anyone can be as good as Budenholzer if they just work with Pops long enough.
Great choice on Boylen, I think he's great! I really wish they somehow got him back from the Spurs even as a co-headcoach or something before the Bulls, + I might have been able to get some tickets, I know him personally (well my parents do more than me, but they've been friends with him since his rockets days).
Morey ain't going to fire McHale until Leslie says so. Morey has too much faith in his system and his dummy coach.
Ettore Messina, this is his 2nd year as (perhaps) a lead assistant coach for the Spurs. Very good resume as a coach in euroleague, certainly in a prime age for a coach, and definitely has good ideas about basketball. A very strong proponent of team defense & collective team offense, with good understanding of a creative, ball handling SG play -he was the coach who developed Manu Ginobili in Italian league in the first place. HE would be a nice candidate for your team head coach, but i do question will your team personnels would fit in with his coaching concept, IMGO he won't fit in with your team "in the hood, black american" team mentality, perhaps the players that he can work with are limited to the kind of Donatas Motiejunas or Trevor Ariza.
